Pop-up headlights were the original fidget toy, and anyone who grew up with a Miata in the family knows it. You’d flick them up and down in the driveway for no reason at all, purely because it felt like the car was blinking at you. Montegrappa clearly gets the appeal. Its new Automobili Lamborghini Miura pen, made to celebrate the Miura’s 60th anniversary, puts a working miniature headlight on the end of the cap. Press a button and the little rock crystal lamp tilts up out of its pocket, mimicking the car’s famous lights. I give it about four seconds before you stop writing and start obsessing and fidgeting over the mini headlight detail.
The headlight gets top billing, but Montegrappa threaded the Miura through the whole pen. The cap’s rounded nose reads like the car’s front fender, with the lamp sunk into a sloped recess the way it sits on the real thing. A black ribbed clip echoes the Miura’s slats, the stacked end cap recalls its louvered engine cover, and the barrel comes in Giallo Fly, Verde Miura, or Black. Montegrappa, Italy’s oldest pen maker, is building 60 of each color as both a fountain pen and a rollerball, for 360 pieces total. The fountain pen costs €8,250 (roughly $9,280), which is a lot for a pen and a bargain for a Miura.
Designer: Montegrappa x Automobili Lamborghini
How the rock crystal headlight pops up on the cap
Rock crystal is natural clear quartz, rating about 7 on the Mohs hardness scale, which is why it was cut into watch crystals and lenses centuries before synthetic sapphire showed up. Montegrappa sets a domed piece of it on an engraved base that recreates the texture of the Miura’s original lamp, so you see a faceted reflector pattern through the stone. A tactile push-button mechanism tilts the lamp up out of its dark-rimmed housing, the same way the car’s headlights rise from the fender. With the cap on, the lamp sits at the very top of the pen like a finial. It won’t light up your notebook, sadly, though at this price I’d have happily accepted a tiny LED.
Gandini gave the Miura’s headlamps metal eyelids framed by black slatted “eyelashes,” and that face became the car’s signature when it debuted at the 1966 Geneva Motor Show. The SV dropped the eyelashes in the early ’70s, and Miura fans have been arguing about that call ever since. Montegrappa’s cap may have smuggled them back in. To my eye, the ribbed black clip sitting right behind the lamp plays the same visual role the eyelashes did on the fender. The press shots seal the deal by parking the cap beside a yellow Miura with its lashes intact, and the resemblance is uncanny.
An 18K ruthenium nib, an ebonite feed, and serious desk heft
Uncap the fountain pen and you get an 18K gold nib with ruthenium plating, a platinum-group metal that gives it a dark gunmetal tone matching the black clip and end cap. The Lamborghini shield is engraved right on the nib face. Underneath sits an ebonite feed, the vulcanized hard rubber that fountain pen nerds love for its smooth, consistent ink flow. Nib options run from Extra Fine to Broad, plus a 1.1mm Stub if you like your handwriting with a little calligraphic swagger. Filling is a straightforward cartridge or converter setup, with two cartridges and a converter included in the box.
The pen measures 6.34 inches (161mm) long and 0.79 inches (20mm) across, and the fountain pen weighs 3.07 ounces (87 grams). That’s a little lighter than two AirPods Pro cases, which puts it firmly in desk-carry territory. The rollerball is a touch heavier at 3.25 ounces (92 grams) and keeps the same body, cap, and headlight, swapping the nib for a black conical tip. Both arrive in a lacquered wood and genuine leather case inspired by the Miura’s seats and interior. Considering how cramped the real car’s cabin is, this might be the roomiest Miura interior ever made.
From the 60° start switch to the Miura’s pop-up headlight
Montegrappa and Lamborghini first teamed up in 2023 for the carmaker’s own 60th anniversary, producing the Automobili Lamborghini 60° collection. Those pens had a hexagonal billet aluminum body and a red alloy flip switch on the base, modeled on the guard over Lamborghini’s start button. They took 24 months to develop and sold in the US for $6,495 as a fountain pen and $5,495 as a rollerball. The Miura edition goes softer and rounder, trading hexagonal edges for glossy curves that suit a 1960s car. Line the two up and a pattern emerges, with Montegrappa taking a car’s most theatrical physical gesture and turning it into the pen’s party trick.
Lamborghini has spent years mining the Miura, from the Aventador Ultimae Roadster that saluted the one-off 1968 Miura Roadster to this year’s 99-unit Revuelto Miura 60° Homage. Montegrappa’s pen is the most attainable entry in that club, and easily the most playful. My one wish is a variant with a proper ring of tiny slatted eyelashes around the lamp, for the P400 purists who want the full face. Pre-orders are open on Montegrappa’s site now, with deliveries starting in mid-November, and official US pricing should land somewhere near that euro conversion. Just keep the fidgeting to a minimum during your next board meeting.
